In 1848, Maeda Toshihira 11th Lord of Daishoji Han asked Yamamoto Hikoemon to built a
kiln to manufacture ceramics for the exclusive usage of the Han. Yamamoto was from
Matsuyama in the village of Chokushi in Enuma Gun.
Matsuyama, Bunko, Hakomiya and Futatsu nashi districts are famous places for tiles
manufacturing since a long time and there is a lot of clay available around these places.
Perhaps Yamamoto thought about this clay and had his kiln opened on this place.
Aoya Genuemon and Matsuya Kikusaburo were invited to join the kiln. They used materials
from the old places such as Kutani village and Suizaka, Chokushi etc. and mainly made
officials gifts which were used in the Han. They made ceramics similar to Yoshidaya.
However in 1863, Maeda Toshika 14th Lord of Daishoji Han decided to sale the kiln to
private investors. The name was changed to Matsuyama Okami kiln. The kiln was operated in
1868 by Kinoshita Naomasa from Koshi village.
They were mainly doing some-tsuke and ordinary Kutani. But a few years later the best
workers had left the kiln and it closed down in 1872. Okura Kiyoshichi, Hamasaka Seigoro
and Nishide Yoshiro became famous later in the kilns around Yamashiro . Kitade Uyomon went
to Sakaeya kiln (‰h’J—q). Finally Yamamoto Shoeomon and Tono Sojiro went to Chokushi
kiln.
People at that time called this kiln the good Matsuyama kiln. The ruin of the kiln still
exist today near Matsuyama at a small hill in the middle of Hiranuma plain .
They had many good painters such as Aoya Genuemon , Matsuya Kikusaburo , Nakano Chuji ,
however even so there were making good paint, as the color of the clay is already tinted
the final color looks darker.LL Matsuyama kiln has trained many workers who became later
good painters or even kiln owners and have continued to work long after Meiji.LL Matsuyama
wares look like Yoshidaya, but the basic pottery is not Roki but Toki or Jiki (the
temperature of transformation is higher than Roki) and when comparing with Yoshidaya their
color contains a lot of yellow. Purple contains some red, yellow contains lot of red but
almost no blue, Prussian blue is similar. They also use gold with a high technic.
The under glazed wares are often marked Eiraku or Dai Nihon Kutani . The original
unpainted pottery from Matsuyama have a more colored green- gray than the unpainted
pottery from Yoshidaya. The color and style of original Matsuyama look like Yoshidaya, but
Matsuyama did not paint all surface of pottery.
As the final color of the pottery is well influenced by the original color of the surface,
generally Matsuyama colors are quite dark.The colors found are not always uniform and
yellow with some blue tendency, green with yellow tendency or purple with red tendency are
commonly found. Only for Prussian blue the color of the pottery has no influence and is
independent from the color of the base.
As far as the designs are concerned, beside the pattern around the edge, there are motifs
inside generally such as Mountain and water, flower and birds, persons.
The paint lines are different between Yoshidaya style (tessenbyo) which are thin and clear
and Matsuyama which are made with a brush and then look thicker .